He’s cranky and cynical and direct — and maybe a bit unstable. And if you don’t like it, he doesn’t care. He’ll all but tell you as much.

Wilson (Woody Harrelson) is the star of the Craig Johnson-directed comedy drama of the same name, which tells the story of this misanthrope and his seemingly desperate need to connect with someone — anyone.

As he narrates the film’s opening, we begin to understand that this guy might take some getting used to; he rationalizes how “modern civility is a scam” and that “happiness is hard to come by.”

Dude, same.

Woody Harrelson alienates pretty much everyone around him in "Wilson."(Photo11: Wilson Webb)

We listen to him ridicule a woman who simply wants to pet his dog; we watch as he invites himself to sit at an outdoor café table with a total stranger and attempt to strike up a conversation; we see him enter an almost empty train car (I believe this is the Northstar Line, as the movie was filmed in Minnesota), sitting immediately next to and engaging a commuter who clearly isn’t interested in chatting.

Hell, he even rear-ends a woman’s car just to try to get her number.

No setting is sacred with this guy, not even the bathroom. It’s awkward for sure, but again… ask Wilson if he cares.

His social situation as well as a family emergency, though, have him rethinking a few things, and he determines that he needs to change his life.

And in sort of a lateral move, he looks to reconnect with his ex-wife, Pippi (Laura Dern) — despite insisting he’s “over her” — and search for, in the least graceful way possible, the teenage daughter (Claire, played by Isabella Amara) he’s never met.

“What do you wanna do, stalk her?” Pippi asks. And after a long, labored guffaw from Wilson….

Some of “Wilson” will make you laugh; a lot of it will make you wonder; most if it will make you cringe.

And that’s because the character is so straightforwardly honest and unfiltered.

He’s offensive, and he doesn’t believe in boundaries — aaaand he doesn’t seem to care. Most of the things he says or does are things rational people think about but never act upon, but that’s exactly what makes him so hypnotic.

You wonder what he’ll do next and are slightly appalled but kind of impressed when he does it.

I absolutely laughed when Wilson drives Claire home and she points out that he passed her house. He sarcastically but fairly asks, “How could you tell?” because she lives in one of those neighborhoods where the curb appeal is pristine and all the houses look indistinguishable from one another; I always wonder how many people come home drunk and mistakenly go into their neighbor’s house, because “How could you tell?”

But when Wilson goes out for ice cream with Alta (Margo Martindale) after a chance encounter, he tells his “date” without the slightest hesitation, “I just need to move on… find somebody new. Not you, necessarily.”

OUCH! Who says that? Wilson does.

Woody Harrelson as "Wilson", Isabella Amana as "Claire" and Laura Dern as "Pippi" in the film "Wilson."(Photo11: Wilson Webb)

The film is based on the creation of cartoonist Daniel Clowes, the same guy whose characters spawned the 2001 Thora Birch-Scarlett Johansson flick “Ghost World,” which I loved.

He’s also the same guy whose work Shia LaBeouf plagiarized for his short film “HowardCantour.com,” after which LaBeouf issued an apology to Clowes that (surprise!) also was plagiarized. Classy.

Clowes came up with the Wilson character in minutes, he said, and “without thinking at all” (different kind of “without thinking” but kind of ironic, considering this character), after being inspired by something he read from "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz.

Wilson came to life in a graphic novel of single-page comic strips with no set time lapse between each one. Clowes noted in a Creative Screenwriting Magazine article that what happens between each strip is left up to interpretation, and that’s where the story comes from.

Knowing that, the film’s abrupt transitions and unaddressed temporal continuity make more sense. Often one scene will curiously cut to another, and you’re left to fill in the blanks.

Clever, Clowes!

The way this story plays out took me by surprise and was a little hard to buy into. But considering all of this is based on a comic strip in which there are no rules, I suppose anything is fair game.

Harrelson seems to be just the guy to bring Wilson to the big screen. His apathy and anger and excitement and naiveté seem genuine — never exaggerated or outlandish, even given the character’s nonexistent rules of conformity.

As much as you loathe the guy, you sort of like him and at the very least begin to understand him.

It’s an interesting look at relationships and the process of connecting — or not.

And while some of “Wilson” may be hard to watch because of his blatant comments and rejection of societal norms, there’s no denying your curiosity and that feeling of this guy being very real.

This is the opinion of news assistant and Movie Addict Melissa King. Follow her on Twitter @stcmovieaddict or email her at meking@stcloudtimes.com. Read more of her columns at www.sctimes.com/mking.